The German press is still reeling from the latest poll humiliation for Ms. Merkel’s party. If the Bavarian voters materialize on their intention this Sunday and send her CSU (the Christian party which is in alliance with her CDU) well below 50% for the first time (polls expect them to fall back to as little as 33%), it would be nothing short of a humiliation.

Financial market commentators in Germany, which see stocks falling today because of the US Fed raising interest rates, stated quite clearly that the ‘support for Merkel’s policies is gone’

The Southern state of Bavaria which has an economy bigger than Sweden is the ultimate German success story. Home to BMW, Siemens, and Allianz has had both the highest employment and lowest crime rate in Germany.

Mr. Joachim Herrmann, Bavarian interior minister and a member of the CSU’s executive, admits: “People don’t see the strong economy as the result of the CSU’s hard political work, they just take it for granted,”

German voters look like they are fed up with all the big mainstream parties in fact. Both the CDU of Ms. Merkel and the left-of-center Social Democrats (SPD) are losing support as voters can be seen fleeing either to the extreme left (the Greens) or the rightwing Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Mr. Armin Gastl, head of the CSU’s Munich Old Town admitted: “Merkel made a big mistake and we have to live with the consequences.”

“Three years on, we’re still suffering.”

Although the CSU tried to change the Merkel-led government in Berlin to change course on immigration, it is exactly this failure that voters now resent them for.

“The CSU vehemently condemned and rejected Merkel’s refugee policy, but when push came to shove it always stepped back from the brink and agreed with the CDU,” explained Ms. Ursula Münch from the Academy for Political Education based in Tutzing. “As a result, it lost a massive amount of credibility.”